goggle "Joe Martin Craftmanship museum"
in Carlsbad Cal. A very worthy trip...
Location: Burnsville MN-Moving to Kalispell MT. in June 20111
Posts: 886
My VIN: 2691
goggle "Joe Martin Craftmanship museum"
in Carlsbad Cal. A very worthy trip...
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
Yes the examples of what can be done by an experienced machinist is amazing. I have had my Sherline machines for over 20 years and they still sell the same machines today.Originally Posted by SS Spoiler
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
Here are a couple photos of the Gear ball before machining. I have poured the white epoxy into the top box which fills the "decal" and gives me something strong to clamp to in my lathe. I also glued in the insert which is offset 15 degrees. Those little nubs on the bottom is what holds it on the 3D printer plate. Those are printed like that so it easily pops off the plate when done. Note this takes about 4.5 hours start to finish of print time (some of that time is the printer heat up and filling the print tank).
The formlabs 3D software that converts the STL file into the printer files works nice to check your design. You can look at each slice that will print to verify things are good.
I love the clear epoxy which I mix a color (white) into for the decal fill. That stuff is very thin so it fills the small lettering no problems. It also sets up very hard and cost about the same as my potting epoxy (T-8. Does not get bubbles in it either.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
For you guys that like machining. Here it is set up in my lathe and the half ball machined. I should get my blank tool in a few days so I can make that tool and machine the other half.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
I made my new tool holder to machine the other side of the ball and it worked very good.
I put the ball in my car without the 1/4" locking nut that is used to hold the ball in the correct orientation. To my surprise turning the ball gets tight because the leather boot seems to bind a little on the inset hole. I made the hole the same diameter and depth as the OEM ball. I guess that 1/4" thick nut held the ball higher and the leather boot did no bind. I may increase that "hole" diameter a little the next time I 3 D print any gear balls.
It still takes a lot of hours of work to make these gear balls. I may do a 3 D print of 4 gear balls and time the process to complete them. I can't spare to many hours building these because my other products are taking most of my time.
Posts: 1,243
My VIN: 10201
If anyone is willing to try printing. I've modeled a grill based on the original one. It's not exact but should be close.
I might try scanning the windshield washer bottle and reverse engineering that some day. Been scanning lots of work parts lately, but still working through full reverse engineering. The scanning software creates a mesh that can be closed and made watertight for direct 3D printing. Making a proper model from a scan is quite a bit more involved.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
There is a way to smooth the STL files before printing with this:
https://airwolf3d.com/3d-printer-sup...ing-stl-files/
I have not been able to get it to work yet. I think this was with older blender software.
Location: England UK
Posts: 254
My VIN: 5462
Club(s): (DCH)
I would split that in two halves add a couple of flanges to each half with holes in so it can be joined with a couple of M6 bolts and then print on its end with no support. This would require adding a 45 degree chamfer to the mounting holes for printing purposes to reduce the overhang, but they are out of site when fitted anyway (see my crude MS paint mock up as I'm not at my design computer at the moment)
front trim.jpg
I do a lot of printing of classic car parts (it's almost my full time job) and I'm printing an item similar size for DeLoreanGo at the moment, I use Fusion360 but I'm producing a models specifically for 3D printing so often the CAD drawings look quite different to what the non-3D printer person would expect.
J
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
I was able to do this smoothing. The subdivide was just under another tool. All I did was subdivide two times and the STL file grew from 677 Kb to 10.6 Mb. I pulled the new STL into the formlabs preform and it looked the same as the original STL on the screen. So maybe it would print smoother and it's just the preform software that has limited capabilities.
I did pull the new STL into meshmixer and it did look a little smoother but it also showed it smoothed out the surface of the decal (numbers and gear pattern).
With blender software it really showed the ball with no facets.
Anyway the fact it's not smooth makes no difference to me since I machine it round anyway. It has to be machined to bring the poured white epoxy smooth to the ball surface. I also have to machine any support structure off the other side of the ball.
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,005
My VIN: 03572
I was testing another white dye for the epoxy. I don't like the new dye because it has some different liquid in it that separates and I can see a few white spots that look like the a powder was not made the same size throughout.
Anyway I made the white color more white but I'm undecided if the more transparent white color is better. I kind of like the less contrast with the old white.
Actually any color can be done with the decal.
Photo of old white and new white.
Last edited by Bitsyncmaster; 02-10-2020 at 04:32 PM.
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Dave M vin 03572